This warrant for catching credit card crooks is practically an Oscar-winning screenplay

Tracking down low-level credit-card scammers can’t possibly be as exciting as an action movie, can it? We didn’t think so, either.

But a warrant application filed in Louisiana on March 20 by senior special agent Kevin Bodden of the US Secret Service showed that sometimes crime enforcement doesn’t need any Hollywood embellishment. The application was simple enough, asking a judge for permission to search a suspect’s phone and hard drive in order to obtain evidence. Though in the course of explaining why the search is needed, the warrant’s writer tells the gripping story of how the suspect was apprehended in the first place.

The following are excerpts from the filing with some light editing. We also added highlights in yellow.

Bodden filed this gripping story (pdf) with Richard L. Bourgeois, Jr, a magistrate judge at the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana. The search and seizure warrant was approved on March 20, the same day it was submitted.